Just Like Heaven
by vontramp
Summary: Delphine auditions for "The Clone Club," an all-female band (according to Sarah) who are in desperate need of a new drummer. Based off of Evelyne's ridiculously cute interview involving cocktails and drumming.
1. Chapter 1

Crossing her arms, a brunette sat up just a little straighter, shifting her glare between the barren stage in front of her and her sister, immediately to her left. Dust particles were evident as they danced against the sunshine pouring in from the solitary window in the dank bar they occupied. "You know what Sarah -"

"Bloody hell Alison, what? Please, by all means, gift us with your suburbanite wisdom." The second brunette rattled the table they shared as she lifted her feet up, anchoring her ankles together before settling them on the wood. She leaned back in her chair, her expression unreadable as she returned her sister's withering stare.

"I was simply going to say that if you hadn't -" She paused, looking around anxiously, as if someone in the spectacularly empty tavern could hear her next words. Even without another soul in the room, apart from the two others at the table, she whispered the ending to her sentence conspiratorially. " - if you hadn't _had sexual relations _with our last two drummers, we wouldn't be in this predicament." Sarah snorted angrily, pulling her arms more closely around her chest and avoiding Alison's gaze as if she were Medusa. "And you," she turned to the third woman, landing a poke against the dreadlocked woman's sternum, "really shouldn't be smoking so much."

Cosima rolled her eyes before stamping out the joint she'd nearly finished, silently debating whether to save the remainder, or roll an entirely new one once she was released from the hell hole that was new drummer auditions. "Yeah, totally. It's not like your constant bickering keeps me on edge or anything, I mean -"

"Hello?" A tentative voice rang out from behind them, the door to the bar opened once again by a slender blonde whose general appearance screamed 'rock band' about as much as Sarah's screamed wholesome. She held up a flyer, shifting her attention from it to the group of girls and back again. "I am looking for the auditions for the Clone Club. You need a drummer, no?" Cosima's ears perked up as the woman continued speaking, detecting the lilt of her accent and immediately determining France, perhaps Paris. "Is it an all female group?"

Sarah snorted again, setting the front two legs of her chair back onto solid ground before turning to face the woman in the doorway. "Our lead singer is our brother Felix, but it's still pretty much all-female." Cosima smirked, covering her chuckle with a cough to avoid yet another reprimand from Alison while the blonde's face scrunched in confusion and she looked back at the flyer a third time, fidgeting uncomfortably. "So you're a drummer, yeah? Show us what you got." She gestured noncommittally to the stage and leaned back in her chair again, her facial features drawn tightly in criticism of the woman's seeming lack of confidence and tentative nature.

Settling in behind the large kit, the mysterious auditioner spun the stick in her right hand several times before connecting the pair three times in the air to signal the beginning of her set. Three jaws dropped as the woman's hands moved flawlessly across the drums before her, her expression one of relaxation and ease. Her foot pounded away at the bass drum while the sticks she loosely gripped made simple work of the snare and tom-toms, occasionally passing over the cymbals for an accent. Her movements were precise, though not contrived, and an impressed grin colored Sarah's cheeks when the blonde finally pulled away, standing hesitantly and facing the trio on the floor.

"Not bad, Frenchie," the brunette replied, as close to a compliment as she would deign necessary. Her hazel eyes flickered left and right, seeing similar amazement on her sister's faces. "Welcome to the Clone Club."

* * *

Cosima leaned against the bar, a goblet of wine dangling loosely in her left hand as her hips swayed to the music unconsciously, watching their new band mate try to win Felix over with wide smiles and Parisian charm. "You gonna try and hit that Cos?" Taking a slow slip of the dark liquid, she shook her head, her dreadlocks swinging dangerously, nearly taking out another patron's half-empty beer. Delphine turned, as if she could feel the girls' eyes on her and wiggled her fingers in greeting before her free hand was grabbed by their brother and she was pulled into the fray of the writhing bodies. "You think she's hot though, yeah?"

"Yeah, totally," Cosima nodded, a light flush tinting her cheeks, "totally. But your genetic predisposition to rash decisions when it comes to your genitalia and how it's affected the band so far -"

"English Cos, yeah? Just fuckin' speak English."

The other brunette flashed a self-deprecating grin toward her sister, her hands flailing in the air while she tried to gain purchase of a new explanation. "Paul and Cal didn't work out, so why should I even try with Delphine? She's the best drummer we've ever had, and besides, I mean -"

"We don't even know if she's down with the twat," Sarah finished unceremoniously, throwing back the dredges of her whiskey and Coke before signaling for another. She turned, running her fingers through the top of her hair before leaning back against the bar to mimic the other woman. "Just give it a go," she finally said, nodding in Delphine's direction, where the blonde was waving them both over to the dance floor. "You never know, do you?"

It was without thought that Cosima's legs began moving her through the crowds, her dark eyes not leaving the lightened hazel peering at her carefully. The drummer gestured to her glass, silently asking for an explanation. "Siobhan, Sarah and Felix's foster mom, owns the bar. As long as we don't drive, she doesn't narc on us."

"Narc?" she echoed, her head tilting to the side as she pursed her lips. Cosima's knees weakened beneath her, and she silently cursed Sarah for planting the idea of a romantic entanglement with their new drummer in her head.

"Um, yeah," she grinned, her neck snaking in the thick, musty air before she straightened up, cocking her head and grinning. "Like, she doesn't rat us out – she doesn't say anything about it, so we don't get in deep shit with the cops." She mentally berated herself this time, rather than her sister, unsure if "deep shit" was in the realm of euphemisms the blonde was familiar with.

"Ah, oui," Delphine agreed, smiling slightly with understanding. "We wouldn't want to get into _deep shit _with the cops." Her emphasis on the phrase was purposeful, and had Cosima's knees trembling further. "Does that mean -"

"You're with the band now, aren't you?" The brunette's cheeky, almost lopsided smirk was all the confirmation the other woman needed, and she deftly, and rather bravely, if she'd look back on it, intertwined their fingers and led their newest drummer towards the sticky, wooden bar. "What's your poison?" Delphine's features went blank a second time, and Cosima felt sure that the look of confusion was one that she could stare at intently for hours – the furrowed brows, slight pout of lips, and the quirk at the edge of the French woman's mouth was quite frankly, in a word, one that she very rarely utilized, adorable. "What would you like to drink?" she amended, a shiver running through her thin frame, despite the tights adorning her legs and the loose, long sleeved top she wore.

"Whatever wine you're drinking is fine." The words were close to her ear, despite the crowded bar not boasting its usual raucousness that Friday night; the sentence, as innocent as it was, was accompanied by a slight squeeze to her hand, the cause of the tingles flooding her spine from the base to her brain stem. Cosima ignored the sudden rush within her body, chalking it up to dopamine and serotonin and flooding chemicals that made it far easier to separate herself from the nerves she felt coursing in her veins. She waved at Siobhan, holding up two fingers before pointing down at her nearly empty glass, receiving a stiff nod and a motherly glare in response. "She doesn't seem to like us drinking, even if she doesn't, as you say, _narc_."

"No, no, it's fine," Cosima automatically rebutted, her right hand itching to join her left in the air, but the rest of her body refusing to release Delphine's fingers. "Alison ended up ralphing in the rose bushes last week because she and Donnie had gotten into a fight, and now we get silent warnings to watch our alcoholic intake." That same slightly dazed expression crossed the blonde's features, shifting Cosima's into a wry grin. "Donnie is her -" she shook her head, laughing quietly. "You know what, you don't even want to know. It's a long story, and it's not even super exciting, so -"

"Mais, j'aime à vous écouter." It was the brunette whose features twisted in confusion this time, provoking a quiet chuckle from Delphine as she nodded at Siobhan, retrieving her glass and gesturing towards the second, notifying the woman whose hand was still firmly grasping her own. She hadn't pulled away, and while she wasn't sure why, she had an inkling that the warmth that radiated up from her fingertips to her forearm to her bicep, finally settling in her chest, was reason enough. "I like listening to you," she translated, a shy smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. "I'd also like to dance with you. Felix is lovely, mais -"

"He can be a bit much sometimes," Cosima offered, almost stumbling over her words as both hands were encumbered at this point and the thought of dancing with the woman inches away from her was enough to have anyone tripping over themselves. Delphine allowed the conversation to end there, despite wanting desperately to clarify her statement, because the brunette was now tugging on her hand, leading her back toward the dance floor and their group of friends, who'd carved out a small niche in the masses.

Hazel eyes scanned the crowd around them, noting that Sarah had latched onto someone who looked very much like Cal, with golden waves and a well-kept beard. Felix, so much like his foster sister, was pressed closely against a man of similar stature and appearance, and it wouldn't have surprised Cosima in the slightest if the two men were twins. Alison held a cup in the air, occasionally spilling it on unsuspecting patrons as she danced on her own, loudly belting along to the music pouring through the speakers. She'd surely be throwing up into the rose bushes again if she weren't cut off soon.

The brunette shook her head, deciding that tonight, it wasn't her concern. She'd allow someone else to deal with the Alison Hendrix Hot Mess Express, while she tended to the blonde who was now slowly swaying about a foot away from her, multicolored eyes hooded and a lit cigarette dangling from the end of her lip. Somehow, in the scant few seconds Cosima had turned her attention to her clones, still such a strange word even to think, thus the use of the word _sisters_, their hands had separated and despite the warm, humid air of the tavern, she felt a coolness against her palm, as if it too missed Delphine's anatomy. Once she'd gathered her thoughts a second time, she looked up, finding a man nothing short of lecherous closing in behind the blonde, who was none the wiser. Cosima was frozen, a foreign feeling building up in her stomach and making her far more nauseous than she'd ever been, even after a night of tequila shots with Sarah – one for each time Alison yelled above the noise, "I love this song!" She'd lost count after number nine.

So instead, she stood, unmoving, watching as his hips pressed up against Delphine's, gauging her interest so sparsely it seemed as though the blonde hadn't even noticed his presence. He pushed more firmly against her and Cosima watched as her eyes widened and she spun on her heel, jabbing an angry pointer finger at his chest and prattling in a frustrated mixture of English and French. Once he'd backed off, both hands hanging in the air as if in surrender, the blonde crossed the few feet between them, sighing roughly and shaking her head. "I hate that." Cosima waiting, as patiently as she could, rocking from one foot to the other, for an extrapolation. "I hate when men assume that because you are dancing alone, that you are in need of their company. Mon Dieu!"

Knowing it was a bad idea, a horrible idea even, but also strangely in tune with the fact that while she was nearly brilliant in the sciences, and more than fair on a bass guitar, she was laughingly inept at making wise choices when it came to women, she pressed her palm against Delphine's collarbone, leaning in next to her ear. "I'll pretend to be your girlfriend for the night. Problem solved." Just as she'd known it was far from the best idea, she knew her words were dripping with things they shouldn't be dripping with – a hint of seduction and a drop of lust. Still very near the blonde's ear, she felt a cool cheek slide against hers several times, the product of a vigorous nod on the drummer's part, as she whispered her gratitude in her native language.

Cosima decided then, that once she'd made what could be a fatal mistake, she might as well commit. What is a theory without experimentation? Why develop a hypothesis if you have no intention of testing its boundaries? So she slipped her free hand once more into Delphine's and began swaying her hips gently, just as she had been earlier at the bar. She was more than surprised, however, when the blonde followed her motions without missing a beat, slipping a slender thigh between Cosima's own and pressing minutely closer, as if testing the waters. Craning her neck back at an admittedly awkward angle, she lifted her gaze to meet Delphine's, finding an intensity that shocked her once again, bringing back the tingles in her spine in full force. Either there was something flooding the space between them, something neither woman was anticipating, or they'd both translated from musicians to award winning actresses in milliseconds. Cosima refused to allow herself the opportunity to hope.

"You are a very convincing girlfriend," Delphine spoke, several songs later – the first words either woman had uttered since the brunette's courageous offer. Her words were hoarse, perhaps due to lack of use, but the hope that Cosima had forced to flat line reared angrily in her chest, bolstering her next words and reminding her of a singular phrase she'd repeated to Sarah many times since they'd first met, their freshman year of high school. _Genetic predisposition to rash decisions. _

"I can be more convincing, you know." She tilted her head to the side, though her typical cheeky smirk was absent; her features were set seriously, tiring of tip-toeing around what she had thus far interpreted as sexual tension.

"Can you?" Delphine's words struck chords in her sternum, the hoarseness of her tone not disappearing and her eyes meeting a similar pair, as if passing an unspoken challenge through the air between them. It was all Cosima could do to nod slowly, tilting her head up as she lifted onto the balls of her feet before untangling their fingers and wrapping her now free hand behind the other woman's neck.

"Is this okay, or am I about to make a huge mistake as your fake girlfriend?"

She heard no response, but the lack of was even better than any verbal confirmation, because Delphine's lips surged against her own, whispering just how _okay _it was, without actually using words. She felt a soft, satiny tongue slip into her mouth and a sigh escaped her own lips as she clung more desperately to the back of the blonde's head, wanting nothing more than to allow this heady, intoxicating feeling absorb her completely. Her limbs, once tingling, were now buzzing dangerously and she had to pull away to ground herself; the breathlessness had made her lightheaded and she swayed slightly as her heels touched down on the sticky, cemented floor of the bar. Cosima chanced a glance upward a second time, finding a soft smile gracing Delphine's features as the fingers once wrapped around her own neck traveled, brushing her bottom lip with nothing short of tenderness.

"I knew I smelt lesbian on her!" The brunette twisted in the drummer's hold, flicking a single middle finger into the air in Felix's direction, despite her beaming smile. As Delphine gazed down at her, she couldn't help but think that a smile that bright, that brilliant could possibly light every lamp in every home in the world, all on its own. Unable to help herself, she tilted down again, twisting Cosima's face back in her direction and applying precise pressure to plump lips, ignoring Sarah's cat calls as they entangled themselves in one another again, this time with far more confidence.

* * *

**AN: This will be a multi-chapter fic, for the record. I hope you enjoyed the first installment, and I'd love if you'd let me know either way, via review or PM. :)**


	2. Chapter 2

"We sound good," Alison's voice rang out, the note of surprise more than evident in her tone. The band had only been practicing for about a week, occupying the stage at Siobhan's bar until she opened for the evening, and that night in particular would be their first show sans-Cal and with Delphine in his place. Delphine, who had been actively avoiding contact with the other members for the past seven days; Delphine who could barely stand to be within fifteen feet of the band's bassist, much less make eye contact with her. Despite the tension rising between the two, each practice had gone better than the last, and a film of confidence was beginning to coat the five, only adding to the anticipation of their upcoming tour.

"You're damn right you do," they all heard from a table beneath them, Beth leaned back casually in a chair, a knowing smirk accompanying her words, which brought a light pink flush to Alison's cheeks and a shy smile tugging at them. "Seattle won't know what hit them."

The group agreed on a ten minute break and while Alison bounded off of the stage, settling herself as closely to Beth as she could manage, Cosima automatically followed Delphine outside. She watched as the blonde pulled a cigarette pack from the pocket of her coat, lighting the stick immediately and taking in a generous drag. She leaned against the alley's brick wall, oblivious to the trash littering the ground beneath her and impervious to the stench that seemed to permanently radiate from the location, but aptly in tune with the sound of a door clicking shut behind her; in reaction, her arms wrapped tightly around her chest when dreadlocks and thick rimmed glasses came into sight.

"We totally need to talk about this. We leave in five days." Far from Alison's judgmental glare, she reached into her own pocket, retrieving a half-smoked joint and silently requesting a lighter, ignoring the jolt that rushed over her skin when her fingers met Delphine's.

"I don't think there is anything to discuss," the blonde rebutted, shrugging off the idea of conversation as she might a stray ash that had fallen against the wool of her coat.

Cosima's eyes widened comically, her mouth falling open as she scoured her brain for an appropriate response – one that utilized logic, prompted Delphine to divulge what she was clearly harboring, and suitably expressed her frustration. "Why are you –" Her hands flew to her forehead, the bracelets coating her wrists jingling as if mocking her anger. "We need to talk about what this is really about."

"We need to get back to practice."

* * *

_Delphine's eyes flickered open slowly, meeting the underside of a mahogany table and an oriental rug, while the breath accompanying a long yawn brought the heady scent of coffee toward her. She pressed up on her forearm, the slight rush of blood to her head forcing her to stabilize her equilibrium before she noticed the weight immobilizing her torso; her gaze flickered from a bent elbow, the lines of a smooth, strong forearm and ending at slightly calloused fingertips and a plethora of vintage rings. She arched her back some, catching a glimpse of dark dreadlocks and slightly smudged eyeliner, no longer hidden by glasses, and she was shocked, though surprisingly comfortable with the embrace._

_Siobhan, having attentively watched the one-sided exchange, entered the living room with two mugs of steaming liquid, jerking her head so that her braid smacked against her back and the blonde teenager followed her silently. Hawk-like scrutiny fell over the remaining occupants as she offered the cup to Delphine, noting that Alison was still breathing, a feat in and of itself given her propensity for drinking far too much, and further noticing that Felix and Sarah were curled together on the couch, both thankfully without conquests from the prior evening. Satisfied, she pressed a warm palm into the blonde's back, guiding her toward the front door and settling them down on the top of the stone steps; Siobhan was silent for several long moments, allowing the hazy morning light to wash over them both, coating them in dew and dawn and, she hoped, a film of candidness._

_"I need to know your intentions." Delphine noticed that her accent, a far cry from Cosima's, still held a lilt that neither Sarah nor Felix possessed, and she allowed her mind to run wild with possible theories, unsure of how to respond to the woman's words, and thus, remaining silent. "All I know is that you are beautiful, you are French, and you apparently enough can handle yourself behind a drum set. That does nothing to settle my concerns."_

_"I am not sure what you mean," she finally replied, her voice wavering slightly and the fingers not wrapped around her mug twitching in the cool air of the early hour. Siobhan pulled a cigarette from the pocket of her flannel shirt, tucking it into Delphine's restless digits before providing a lighter as well; the blonde inhaled her first drag deeply, nodding her thanks while she contemplated a more illustrative response._

_"Sarah and Felix are a rare breed," she continued, blatantly ignoring the teenager's silence. "They've learned, in acts of self-preservation, to keep their hearts tucked closely beneath their coats. Paul and Cal were simply collateral damage in what has been deemed the Sarah Shite Storm. She moves on quickly, refusing to acknowledge feelings, and buries herself into the next experience, regardless of if it's a what or a who. Felix, on the other hand, throws himself around, much to my verbalized displeasure, never stopping long enough to develop any feelings at all." Delphine simply nodded, blowing a slow stream of white smoke into the yard they had both fixed their gazes on. "Cosima is not like them." With that, the blonde's head twisted violently, taking in Siobhan's warming expression, the slightest of smiles tugging at her lips. "Everything she does, everything she is, is pure passion. She commits fully to everything that touches her heart, and she gets burned far worse for it. Now, Sarah and I, we have a knack for burning things to the ground, as I'm sure you can imagine, but I refuse to allow you to do the same to Cosima. I may not have raised her, but she and Alison are just as much mine as those two heathens I fostered ten years ago. I need to know your intentions with my daughter."_

_"I do not know," Delphine whispered, shaking her head slightly. "I've never –"_

_"In two weeks, they're planning a small tour, along the west coast of the states. I suggest you determine your intentions before you are stuck in a van with those four for the next three months."_

* * *

Cosima absentmindedly plucked at the strings beneath her fingertips, occasionally retuning her guitar, her face scrunched in dedicated determination. She looked up after a moment, hoping to catch Delphine's gaze, but found that, as it had been for the past twelve days, the blonde was actively circumventing her as she packed her drum set, preparing for their tour. She felt a presence settle down beside her, the movement too graceful to be Sarah and far too quiet to be Felix. "Yes, Alison?" she sighed, refusing to look up from the instrument sitting in her lap.

"Is this little _situation _–" she gestured between the dreadlocked brunette and the adamantly avoidant blonde – "going to be an issue?" Cosima shrugged noncommittally, unsure if there even _was _a situation to be referenced. "I've had this talk with Sarah a thousand times over, but I thought you, out of the three of us, would have the good sense to –"

"Oi! Back off her Alison. It ain't her fault Blondie stuck a tongue down her throat and then decided to act like it never happened, yeah?" Cosima turned her head sharply, watching as an expression dripping with guilt fell over the features of the woman being referenced, though Delphine quickly turned away, resuming her packing. "Cos didn't do anything wrong, okay?"

"I'm simply saying –"

"You're simply shutting the hell up, yeah? That's what you're simply doin'."

The late hour was doing nothing to decrease the tension radiating between the three women sat on the stage, and Cosima automatically separated herself from her sisters, gently placing her guitar in its stand and moving outside to the alleyway, sucking in desperate breaths to keep the sobs rumbling in her throat at bay. She suddenly pitched forward, her fingertips grasping at her kneecaps with vigor, the only thing keeping her from falling to the ground in a heap as the thunder crackling in her chest turned into flashes of lightning, and even more quickly, into a downpour. She lifted her glasses, securing them atop her head and ignoring the liquid leaving tracks down her cheeks, knowing, but not even near caring, that her eyeliner would have streaked and made her turmoil physically evident.

"Cosima?" The gentle lilt and engaging accent did nothing for her tears, and she choked angrily, frustration filtering through her veins, diminishing if not eliminating any blood that had previously occupied her arteries and capillaries.

"There's nothing to discuss, right?" she managed to bite out as she straightened up, roughly palming her cheeks to dry them. "Can you just, like, leave maybe?"

"Cosima." The word was a whisper, a barely audible plea for understanding, one that the brunette was not planning to acknowledge, refusing to let Delphine's words twist beneath her rib cage and stab once again at her heart. _Genetic predisposition to rash decisions_, her mind taunted as her hands flew up to her forehead, rubbing at her temples with frustration. "I –"

The single letter, solitary word, and hesitant opening to a selfish sentence had the anger in Cosima's sternum exploding. "You what?" she barked out, spinning on her heel to face the blonde just inches away from her. The effect of her outburst was written across Delphine's features – lips pursed, eyebrows furrowed, and her mouth quivering. "You're _sorry_?" The laugh that rose from the pit of the bassist's stomach was harsh, unrelenting. Her biological instinct to implode was building in her gut, the fight-or-flight sensation clearly clouding her verbal capabilities. "Tell me, Delphine. Tell me that our kiss meant nothing to you. Tell me that you just want to be friends. Tell me, just fucking tell me, that when our fingers touch, or when we accidentally brush against one another, or when our eyes meet, that you don't feel something there. Tell me that there isn't a tingle, or a jolt, or a fire that goes through your chest." Delphine's hand had splayed across her mouth as she watched Cosima's stability unravel, falling to the ground in an act of vulnerability. _Everything she does, everything she is, is pure passion. She commits fully to everything that touches her heart. _"Tell me that I made this all up in my mind."

For someone who was bilingual, it seemed her grasp of both languages evaded her as her eyes scanned every portion of the brunette's presence – her gasping breaths, the tears tickling at her eyelashes, her body language, splayed open and allowing her heart to fall to the dirty ground. In place of words, Delphine simply shook her head, easing forward with a tentative step, judging Cosima's reaction; the other woman, however, stood stock still, her hazel eyes flickering in the low light of the street lamps. Her hand found another in the darkness, pressing the two quivering palms together, each shaking for a different reason – one in fear of rejection, the other still mottled with anger. Fingers interlocked, slowly and Delphine took another step, their torsos so close she could nearly feel the brunette's breaths against her own lungs. She hesitated before closing the gap between them, terrified lips meeting warmth, blemished only by Cosima's final act of self-preservation, once again refusing herself the chance to hope. When a soft tongue slid across her bottom lip questioningly, those walls fell a second time, more quickly than the first. Her free hand gained purchase of honey colored curls and she pulled Delphine just that much closer, despite her mind screaming at her to do just the opposite.

"Oi! Not lesbians," they heard, separating quickly with pounding heartbeats that could be clearly heard in their eardrums, "we're leaving in fifteen. Get your non-Sapphic fannies backstage to finish packing, yeah?" Felix's head disappeared back into the building, and several long, tense seconds passed before they both burst into laughter.

Their giggles only abated when they realized that despite the foot of space between them, their hands were still firmly linked, and Delphine swallowed roughly before flickering her eyes up to meet Cosima's. "Siobhan asked me what my intentions were," she began, her voice hoarsely meandering through the thick air outside of the bar. "She told me to figure them out before we left, and I couldn't – I –"

"It's okay."

Blonde waves shook in the air as the drummer negated the two words, because as simple as they were, they were a cop out as well as an outright lie. "It's not okay. I didn't know what to do. I've never been with a woman before, Cosima."

"Your tongue says differently," she chuckled, her tongue peeking out from behind her canine teeth, a wide grin plastered onto her features as she swung their tangled hands between them. "It's okay to not know," the brunette whispered, her tone becoming far more serious. "If this – if we – if _I_-" she finally settled on, "make you happy, then the rest of it doesn't matter."

"Vous me rendre plus heureux."

"I have no idea what that means, but it's totally encouraging." Her eyes lit up as she spoke, and she tilted onto the balls of her feet to press a quick kiss to Delphine's cheek before tugging her hand toward the doorway. "Now let's get inside before Alison has an aneurism." The blonde followed blindly all the way to the stage, her grip on Cosima's hand not loosening a fraction of a centimeter. Her gaze shifted from the brunette, who was gesturing wildly with her free hand while she and Sarah talked about their impending departure, to the bar, where Siobhan was dutifully wiping glasses dry. The older woman's eyes flickered to intertwined fingers and the brilliant grin overtaking Cosima's features as she prattled on, and Delphine received a tight nod and an even tighter smile – one she would have missed had she blinked.

* * *

**AN: First and foremost, thank you for the incredible reaction to the first installment of this fic! Honestly, all of the kind words had me more than inspired, which is why this was posted so quickly. I tinkered with the idea of how to set this chapter up for quite a while, and settled on something I hope you all enjoyed! Their "tour" will begin next chapter, so get ready, and good luck tomorrow with the finale! Fingers crossed we all make it out with our sanity intact!**


	3. Chapter 3

"I want you to call when you've stopped for the night." Sarah rolled her eyes, huffing before eventually nodding, looking back at Cosima and Felix loading the last of their equipment into the back of the van parked on the street. "Alison –"

"I'll make sure you're regularly updated on our whereabouts Mrs. S," she called from the sidewalk before she slapped Felix's shoulder for handling one of the instrument cases too roughly.

"And if anyone comes back pregnant –"

"Oi, you've got me and these two not-lesbians," he said, jerking his thumb in the direction of the blonde leaning against the van and the brunette helping him arrange everything in the back of the vehicle, "so there's 60% chance that won't happen already. Your odds are good Siobhan." Cosima cupped her hand over her mouth, stifling her giggles as Alison swatted at both of their biceps a second time, her cheeks flushing crimson. Slamming the double doors shut, he strode back toward the house, enveloping his foster mother in a tight hug before allowing the others to do the same. She held on a bit tighter to Delphine, pulling away only to scrutinize her carefully, seemingly content with the honesty purported in her hazel eyes. She waved as all five piled into the van Carlton had procured for them, one arm tucked across her chest and her other elbow resting atop it, hoping her wide smile would distract them from the tears tickling at the base of her eyelashes.

They'd made it barely ten miles onto the highway before Felix groaned, slapping Alison's hand away from the radio for the third time. "Oi! I might be gayer than a pack of rainbow unicorns, but I refuse to listen to show tunes for the next eight hours Alison. That's bloody torture, yeah?" Sarah grunted her agreement from the backseat, wedged between Cosima and the passenger side window, where she'd spent the past fifteen minutes massaging her temples in frustration.

"Let's play twenty questions then!" she exclaimed, her disappointment over being out-voted in terms of the radio station quickly eclipsed by her excitement for road trip games. Sarah knocked her forehead against the cool glass of the window repeatedly, her expression one of pure horror. "Cosima, when are you finally going to decide to go to school?"

The second brunette in the backseat pinched the bridge of her nose before pushing her glasses up, very evidently as enthusiastic as her sister was. "I'm already working on my third year classes," she mumbled, refusing to initiate contact with the wide eyes staring back at her, surrounded by a curtain of straight across bangs. "I applied our last year of high school, and I've been working through the curriculum online." Beth had immediately elected to enroll in the police academy, Sarah refused to consider the idea of higher education, and Alison had convinced her parents that a year or two off would help "broaden her horizons culturally." Discovering that the fourth clone had not only enrolled, but was clearly succeeding academically without their knowledge was news to each inhabitant of the car. "So I'll be done with my undergraduate degree in microbiology when I'm like, twenty or something. Whatever, I mean – it's totally not a big deal." Alison's mouth popped open to refute her sister's last statement, but Felix reached over and squeezed her thigh, hoping the gesture would keep her from perpetuating the conversation Cosima clearly had no interest in continuing.

"You should be proud," she heard from her left, Delphine's gentle lilting tone reaching her ears. "It is impressive, non? You are only nineteen." She shrugged off the compliment, but a small grin tugged at her cheeks regardless. "I will be done a year after you, you know. It is nice to know someone who gets it, non?" Cosima's smile widened as she nodded, subconsciously leaning against the blonde's side, then more than consciously resting her palm against the other girl's bare knee.

"Obvs," she whispered, chuckling at the confusion, and finally the look of recognition on Delphine's face. "Sarah," she finally announced, turning toward her sister, whose forehead was still plastered against the windowpane, "how many people have you slept with?"

"Asshole," the girl muttered in response, though the smirk playing against her lips held no animosity. She lifted her eyes upward in a silent attempt to calculate, but soon gave up, choosing a far more vague answer to Cosima's question. "More than Alison, less than Fee, yeah?" She dodged two slaps coming at her from the front seats, her head thrown back in laughter while she gasped for breath to continue their game, upping the ante immediately. "Delphine, what attracted you to our little geek monkey here?"

The van dipped into a film of silence, four out of the five occupants waiting impatiently for the blonde's answer. Cosima gently squeezed her knee and shook her head slightly, indicating that she didn't need to respond, but Delphine shot her a soft smile, kissing her on the cheek before replying. "Elle est tres belle, of course, mais –"She trailed off slightly, her brow scrunched as she searched for adequate words to express the swirling of wings in her stomach and the tap-dancing her heart did each time their gazes met. "There is just something about her," she decided on finally. "There is something that made me need to be close to her, to know everything about her, and something even bigger that made me hope she wanted the same."

"Well that's just out of a bloody Nicholas Sparks novel, innit?" Felix teased, prompting a scarlet flush to inflame Delphine's cheeks as she ducked her head in an attempt to hide the coloring against her porcelain skin. Cosima allowed her hand to wander from the blonde's knee, finding a matching partner and intertwining their fingers, squeezing once in silent appreciation of her answer.

Moments later, after composing herself, a serious expression crossed the French woman's features, unsure of how to pose her question. "Sarah and Felix are foster siblings, non?" They both nodded, smirking at one another. "But what about the three of you, and the girl who came to one of our rehearsals?"

"There was an Amber Alert –" Alison began, remembering quite clearly the frantic phone calls from her parents when her face had become emblazoned over every billboard in their city, as well as flashed repeatedly on each major news station.

"Sarah had run away again, for the fourth time in less than a year –" Felix continued, shifting his gaze over his shoulder to send a playful glare toward his foster sister before returning his eyes to the stretching freeway.

"All of our parents freaked out, because three out of four of us weren't missing, obvs, but a girl who looked just like us was," Cosima added, recalling the expression of complete and utter relief on her father's face when she walked through the front door after a science club meeting. "Somehow, all of our parents got in contact with Siobhan –"

"Lawyers for me," Alison quickly supplied, "and Beth's dad was the head of the police force in Toronto, and –"

"My mom's in social work," Cosima finished. "They exchanged information, and I flew up so that we could all meet, and the rest is just, like history. We spent summers at Siobhan's until after high school, and then I moved here, to stay close to them." It was a story very rarely told, as people were far more apt to assume that they were simply quadruplets raised separately – a Parent Trap situation – and it was far easier to allow those assumptions than to prove the inexplicable.

Delphine's mind was racing as each fact fit into slots she'd conjured in her mind's eyes, until she landed on one essential factoid she'd glossed over when she first met the three women in the car with her. "You're clones," she whispered, her mouth hanging open and her grip on Cosima's hand slackening. "The Clone Club." Alison's face contorted into a look of disgruntlement, which provoked chuckles from the others in the vehicle.

"We don't use the C word. Alison prefers _genetic identicals_," Sarah teased, placing an unnecessary amount of emphasis on her last words. "But yeah, we are."

Delphine simply nodded a few times, running her thumb across the back of Cosima's hand in a windshield wiper pattern as she thought quietly. It had been more than blatantly obvious that the girls were raised in different environments, as nature versus nurture had peaked her interest during her introductory psychology course, but while the thought was not completely out of the realm of possibility, she wouldn't have come to the conclusion of clones on her own. Finally, after several minutes of stagnant, uncomfortable silence, she turned toward Alison, hesitating before a sly grin tugged at her cheeks. "So you and Beth, non?" Sarah snorted loudly, Felix's mouth gaped open rather unattractively, and Cosima buried her face into the blonde's shoulder, hiding her laughter while Alison vehemently denied any such attraction. Delphine simply shrugged as she lit a cigarette and rolled down her window, the small smile still playing on her lips when Cosima scooted over as inconspicuously as she could manage to maintain contact.

* * *

The motel room was small, and far from hygienic. Delphine peeked into the bathroom and immediately decided a shower was out of the question, despite the travel grime she felt seeping into her pores. Cosima had disappeared more than an hour ago, and Alison, after a bottle and a half of red wine they'd picked up before crossing the border had passed out on the couch in the corner of the room. Felix and Sarah were propped up against the pillows of the bed nearest the unconscious woman, passing a bottle of bourbon back and forth, arguing violently over whether the woman on screen played a probable prostitute, going so far as to criticize her tattoos and the layout of drugs on the coffee table in front of her. The blonde tried desperately to tune them out as she pulled her hair away from her face, splashing water against her cheeks to remove some fragment of the sweat that had collected against her skin.

Shuffling over to her suitcase, she pulled out loose sweatpants and a tank top, debating internally whether to return to the cesspool that was their motel's bathroom or to abandon her self-consciousness, and simultaneously any dignity she had by changing within eye-line of her two bandmates who were, at least in some form or fashion, present.

"Delphine, it's nothin' we haven't seen before, yeah?" Sarah called from her place on the bed, not removing her gaze from the screen. Rolling hazel eyes, the blonde shimmied out of her jeans, throwing them over her duffle bag and slipping into her pajama bottoms before crossing her arms at the hem of her shirt and pulling upward as the front door opened.

"More like Del-fine, innit?" Felix teased, noting Cosima's expression as she crossed over the threshold, her eyes glued to the trim waist, toned abdomen and breasts covered by nothing more than a thin, lace bra. "Cos, stop drooling, yeah? It's not attractive." Delphine slipped her tank top over her shoulders, fighting the blush threatening to build up beneath her cheeks. "Where'd you run off to anyway?"

"Just exploring," she shrugged in response, clearly avoiding a full explanation as she reached for the half-empty bottle of wine precariously leaning towards the floor despite Alison's loose grip on it. "Checking out the music scene, seeing if there were bars we could perform at before we head out to Seattle." Cosima set the green glass bottle on the night stand as she began shedding her own clothes, much more comfortable with changing in front of an audience. She pushed her head through the opening of an oversized sweater, forgoing pants as she shook her dreads out and readjusted her glasses before flopping onto the second bed and taking a long sip of red wine.

"Curiosity killed the pussy, you know," Felix teased.

"Or it totally made the girl attached to it scream my name. Semantics." She dug through her backpack, pulling out a joint and wordlessly lighting it with a Zippo lighter, one that Delphine noticed had a strand of DNA carved into the side. As she blew the smoke upward, she passed both items to Felix before officially turning her attention to the blonde, who was still standing in the corner, her arms crossed rather tightly over her chest. Cosima cocked her head, encouraging Delphine to join her on the sure to be less-than-sanitary mattress, removing any space between them when the drummer acquiesced. Taking a second deep inhale, warm brown eyes flickered to the blonde's now exposed shoulder, boasting an intricate black and white inked flower. "I didn't know you had a tattoo," she whispered, absentmindedly tracing the lines against porcelain skin.

"I didn't know you were quite so vulgar, ma cherie."

Cosima stuck her tongue out, wobbling her head left and right as one hand circled the air and the other continued following the lines of Delphine's ink-marked skin. "You have all the time in the world to find out just how vulgar I can be." Her words were laced with what seemed like a dare, one the blonde accepted readily, feeling the pounding in her heart shift lower, into her stomach and further past it. She pressed forward, melding their mouths for just long enough to taste the pinot noir against satin lips before pulling back with the smallest of smirks.

"I look forward to it."

* * *

**AN: A little bit shorter, so I apologize! I had a bit of writer's block with this chapter, but within the next chapter or so, we'll have a moment that I've been tossing around in my head for a little while. It was a matter of setting it up correctly. :) With that said, I hope the hiatus hasn't driven you completely mad just yet, and I hope that this story (as well as many of the other super well-written pieces on here) are keeping your Cophine fix fulfilled! I hope you enjoyed - let me know either way!**

**And specifically to DocRock (spelling error maybe? sorry!), I addressed a few of your questions in this chapter, though I wouldn't have personally considered them plot holes. Helena will absolutely be making an appearance (never as a villain - I adore her to bits and pieces), and SoccerCop is definitely a thing. xx Aimee**


	4. Chapter 4

It was their first performance after crossing the border, leaving them in a small town just outside of Seattle to get a feel for the musical scene, and as should have been expected, Alison was curled into a ball, backed up against one of the amps.

"Do you want to go sharesies on a Xanax?"

"I can go to the bar and get you a shot of vodka, yeah?"

"I've got a joint in the van, and I'll totally share if it will stop you from wigging out."

"You just need to breathe."

"I hate yoga," Alison managed to gasp out, her breaths still coming in sharp wheezes as her hands shook in between her thighs and her chest, "and I hate smoking even more than yoga, Cosima. You know that." Delphine settled onto the ground next to the anxiety-ridden woman, wrapping her up tightly in her arms and not pulling away despite Alison's noisy protests and ineffectively swinging fists. "Let _go _of me!" she screeched, thrashing dangerously in the blonde's embrace. Cosima gestured for their remaining two bandmates to follow through on their offers before mimicking Delphine on her sister's other side, squeezing as if her arms could hold the girl's sanity together. She looked up, catching a slight reddening across porcelain cheeks, now sure that the drummer was just as aware as she was of their hands flush against the other's breasts in their current position.

"Pressure relaxes the sympathetic nervous system, Ali," Cosima explained, cooing softly and hoping that soon, any fight would fall out of their singer's limbs. That fact was one of the few she'd retained from her introductory psychology class, likely due to the fact that it was biologically related. The words _geek monkey_ floated through her head, and for once, the nickname didn't leave a bitter taste in her mouth. "If you'd stop squirming, it would help you calm down."

Alison's breaths finally began to slow as Sarah and Felix reappeared, each holding out a hand with a different substance in it, and she would have taken the moment to make an "Alison Wonderland" pun, but refrained, not intent on setting her sister off a second time. The petite brunette threw the pill to the back of her throat, washing it down with what must have been well alcohol, as her face scrunched in disgust and her eyes flew upward to meet identical brown, the golden flecks in her irises dancing violently.

"I had to flirt my way through three bartenders to get that shot for you, so shut it, yeah?" Sarah griped before Alison had a chance to speak. "Siobhan took my fake ID when you ratted me out, so the shit vodka is your own fault." Running a hand over her bangs to ensure they were in place, the brunette shrugged, taking the stinging, albeit true, accusation as gracefully as she can muster as she stood. She was adjusting her clothing when Cosima assured her that the crowds at this bar are generally receptive, but the four incredulous looks the dreadlocked woman received had her backpedaling quickly.

"I mean, I'm sure they will be, because I mean, we're really good now, and like –" Delphine grabbed both of her hands which were flying freely through the air, searching for appropriate excuses and explanations, and kissed her quickly on the lips. The manager of the bar approached them just seconds after, his eyes trained on the close embrace between the two women, giving Alison a moment to push her empty shot glass behind a wooden crate with her foot, while maintaining a guarded smile.

"You kids are on." His voice was gruff, and his gaze didn't flicker long from Delphine and Cosima's intertwined fingers, though his look read intrigue more so than disgust. "Break a leg." The sentiment was less than half-hearted, but his quick exit gave them a few spare moments to brush off the sticky grime his presence had filtered over them.

"Fuckin' perv," Sarah griped, lifting her guitar over her head and swinging it quickly around to rest against her lower back. Cosima, after pushing onto the tips of her toes for a second kiss, did the same while Delphine patted the back pockets of her sinfully tight jeans to be sure she had a spare set of drum sticks. "We're good, yeah?" Four heads nodded in response, though her line of sight was geared toward Alison, who nodded more believably a second time.

As they trooped onto stage, the buzz of anticipation filled each of their veins, not unlike the lightheaded sensation of the blonde's cigarettes, the warming balm on frazzled nerves of Cosima's weed, or the vicious need for expression Felix's occasional cocaine usage brought. "We're the Clone Club," he announced loudly, receiving a smattering of applause and a few whooping yells, "and you're an attractive crowd – especially you, down there in front," he flirted, winking at a young man barely ten feet from the stage. "You come and find me after –"

Delphine slammed her sticks together three times, effectively garnering their lead singer's attention and ceasing his onslaught of the unsuspecting audience member, pleased when the three other women settled into their instruments and their set began, without even a hiccup.

* * *

Warm hands snaked around her waist and she felt a head fall against her shoulder, and despite the close quarters and number of people who had managed to brush against her throughout the night, Delphine didn't startle as she normally would; the hands were familiar and the slightly coarse texture of the hair against her bare skin was as comfortable as slipping underneath cool sheets in the heat of July. "Bon soir ma cherie," she cooed, hooking her right arm over Cosima's shoulders and tilting down to press a kiss to the corner of her mouth. The entire band had been riding the high of performance for several hours now, and while Felix, Sarah, and Alison had not strayed from the dance floor longer than five minutes, Delphine and Cosima had stayed near the bar, away from the rabid crowds.

"Oh, you're the bass player." Hazel eyes darted upward, taking in the man warily before she nodded, her expression a far cry from the jubilant one she'd possessed only minutes earlier. "You've both got killer rhythm."

"Oh, you have no idea," Cosima murmured, her gaze flickering toward Delphine's face, scrunched adorably in confusion, though her double entendre was not missed by the young man opposite them, who she'd been watching from across the room since she'd exited the bathroom. His body, leaned in just a bit too closely, his hands, which occasionally brushed against the blonde's forearm, the red wine now tucked loosely between her fingers that he had paid for – all of it had Cosima's blood curdling unattractively, and it took all she had not to throttle herself in his direction, knocking him to the ground to increase the distance between his body and Delphine's.

"Well it was nice to meet you guys. Like I said, you were really good."

The drummer beamed, calling out her gratitude as he walked away before turning to face the petite brunette clinging to her side even still. She scanned Cosima's body language, noting that the woman's hands were balled into fists, despite them being hooked around her midsection, and her eyes were glazed over with a faraway look, two flames of annoyance flickering in her pupils. "Vous êtes jaloux." The brunette arched a single eyebrow in silent query, waiting for a translation. "You're jealous."

Removing herself from Delphine's side, Cosima hopped onto a barstool and rolled her eyes, signaling the bartender for two more glasses of red wine. "I'm not jealous," she chuckled, but the blonde's expression was one of complete and utter disbelief in her words. "Jealousy implies a threat, _ma cherie._ I just don't like people getting handsy with my –" The air stilled immediately, and Cosima developed an almost instantaneous case of foot-in-mouth disease; she gratefully retrieved the goblet proffered to her, sipping slowly so she wouldn't choke on it as she had her words. The noise of the bar dulled to a buzzing murmur, almost indistinguishable, and it seemed as though everything apart from piercing hazel eyes had faded away completely.

"Oui?" Delphine prompted, her heart hammering against her rib cage painfully and her stomach rolling in on itself, torqueing itself into a knot of unconfident worry. "Your what, Cosima?" The brunette shook her head, looking down into her glass as if the swirling liquid held the answers for her. "What am I to you?" Her voice was just above a whisper, but the five words hit the brunette's eardrums like the screaming whistle of a freight train. "What do you want me to be?"

Cosima shook her head a second time, this time far more roughly, before sliding off of the bar stool and walking quickly to the door, her arms wrapped tightly around her rib cage, as if trying to keep her heart from spilling onto the wooden floor beneath her scrambling feet.

* * *

Stubbing out the end of her joint, the dreadlocked brunette dog-eared the page she was on and slipped _On the Origin of Species _into her messenger bag before grabbing her coat and exiting the motel room. Three pairs of eyes, all very nearly the same shade, focused on Delphine and the burning gazes she felt had her looking up from her own book. "Quoi?"

"Aren't you going to follow her?" Alison stage whispered, despite the fact that Cosima was out of the room, and thus well out of earshot.

"Yeah, Frenchie. Somethin' is goin' on between the two of you, and it's fuckin' up our mojo, innit?" The blonde sighed, slipping a bookmark between two pages to save her own place, before grabbing a pair of boots and roughly shoving her feet into them. The very last thing she wanted to do was put herself in a second situation of possible rejection, with the sting of the first still piercing her skin and keeping her thoughts hostage, no matter what attempts she made to distract herself.

The bed had felt cold the night before, despite the broken air conditioner in their room, with both her and Cosima curled up on the furthest reaches of the mattress, at least a foot of space between them. They had alternated smoke breaks, never stepping outside of the hotel room at the same time without a middle man, and the brunette had been actively avoiding eye contact for the majority of the day. Delphine had barely endured the torture for twenty four hours, and her heart ached when she thought of how she'd done just the same for almost two weeks. So reluctantly, she ducked out of the motel room, throwing her purse over one shoulder and watching as Cosima walked with purpose across the parking lot, taking a left onto the sidewalk. She left a sizeable amount of distance between them despite the late hour, breathing a sigh of relief when the brunette ducked into a small coffee shop. Her nerves took over as she inspected the sign of the café, and she leaned back against the red brick walls, lighting a cigarette and cursing Cosima for not choosing a bar, where liquid courage would have been an option. The steady inhale, hold, and exhale kept Delphine's hands from shaking, and when she tossed the filter to the ground, she felt as sure as she possibly could be that she was ready to step through those doors.

The shop was dimly lit, and after scanning the tables, she found no sign of dreadlocks, which only purported her confusion. She ordered a cappuccino, settling down at a table in the very back corner of the café, pulling out her copy of ___The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals_, one Cosima had recommended, and dove back into the easy to read black and white lines, even if not-so-easy to read brown and hazel eyes flickered into her consciousness every few sentences.

"Hey guys," she heard from across the room, noting a small stage she'd overlooked in her initial observation of the sparsely furnished room. "We've got a new addition to the open-mic line up tonight, so be gentle, and enjoy!"

The crudely developed spotlight flickered from the redhead who'd held the introduction to a petite brunette curled around an acoustic guitar that seemed almost too large for her frame. She pushed her glasses up self-consciously and gave a small wave, and even smaller smile. "Wow, this never gets easier," she chuckled, blushing slightly when the audience laughed along with her. "This is only my second or third time doing an open mic night, so like she said, be totally gentle with me. This is a song I'd like to dedicate to someone very close to my heart," she began, her voice barely above a murmur. "I want to dedicate it to her, even though she's not here, and I don't know when I'll be ready to tell her that both of these things are hers – this song, and my heart. Obvs." A few people at the tables nearest the stage cooed adoringly amidst the soft laughter, and Cosima's blush flamed again, dusting her cheeks and providing a backdrop for the freckles across her nose. "So, I mean –yeah. Here we go."

She began strumming gently, the contrasts in her performance tugging desperately at Delphine's already pounding heart; perched on a stool beneath the acoustic guitar, she seemed bare and vulnerable – decidedly smaller and without a doubt less confident than when she stood up, plucking notes one-by-one on her bass. The blonde found herself focused so intently on Cosima's form that she'd missed the beginning of the song, but the silence of the people crowded around the stage confirmed her suspicion that it was beautifully done.

"_Spinning on that dizzy edge, I kissed her face and kissed her head_," she sang, the timber in her voice low and husky, though it seemed as though honey seeped through her words, leaving them hanging heavily sweet in the air of the café. "_And dreamed of all the different ways I had to make her glow. 'Why are you so far away?' she said, 'why won't you ever know that I'm in love with you?_'" Hazel eyes didn't falter from their locked place on the stage as Delphine stood, walking first to lean on the counter, immediately waving off the barista so she could keep her attention appropriately fixated. "_You, soft and only. You, lost and lonely. You, strange as angels dancing in the deepest oceans, twisting in the water. You're just like a dream_." With each chorus and each verse, the blonde moved forward, closing the gap between herself and the woman on stage, her heart pounding more furiously as the distance lessened. "_You, soft and only. You, lost and lonely. You, just like heaven_."

Cosima's eye line shifted from the snapping fingers of the patrons to cascading waves and an expression that shone with adoration and vulnerability. "Why are you here?" she whispered, moving the microphone away from her mouth, though her words held no trace of bitterness.

"Because I –" she hesitated, her hands twisting in front of her as she became acutely aware of the collective gaze of the patrons of the coffee shop. "Because I think I'm falling in love with you." Ignoring the look of shock that ensnared itself within Cosima's features, Delphine took a step up and finished closing the space between them quickly, tilting the brunette's chin upward and sealing her words with lips that spelled out promises. When she pulled away, the rush of the world hit them full force, the snaps of the audience having transformed into an amalgamation of whistles, cheers, and claps that could have broken the sound barrier.

"Can we get out of here?" Cosima mouthed, a small smile playing on her lips when Delphine nodded, kissing her on the forehead and extending her hand.

* * *

**AN: I realize there are a few holes here, actions that may seem out of place, but they'll be explained in the next few chapters, rest assured Clone Club. :) With that said, I'm actually really happy with how this chapter turned out, and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! And, one hundred kudos points to anyone who can note the two (or three-ish technically) portions of this chapter reworked from the show! Until next chapter, xx Aimee**


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: There are a few things at the bottom I'd appreciate if you read, and one in particular I need feedback on. :)**

* * *

"_Love, I need you to be careful."_

_"It was just bronchitis Siobhan," Cosima scoffed, absentmindedly rubbing at the muscles in her chest, reminded of the soreness as she spent weeks coughing violently. "If it comes back, we'll find a health clinic or something, obvs."_

_"You know that isn't what I mean chicken." Auburn hair brushed over a bare shoulder as the older woman reached over the teenager to place a mug of tea in front of her, running a hand over the dreadlocks she'd insisted on months ago, as a way to further differentiate herself from Sarah. "I need you to be careful with Delphine."_

_"Yeah, well Delphine isn't currently acknowledging my presence when we're in the same room, much less talking to me, so it doesn't seem like there's anything I need to be careful about." The annoyance in her voice was obvious, laced with even more clear resentment, and she brought her cup to her lips to hide the scowl she knew was sitting there._

_Siobhan settled into an armchair opposite her foster daughter's "sister," and sighed, a wan smile pulling at her cheeks. "I may not have known you as long as I have Sarah or Felix, but I'm still a mother – still your mother of sorts, love – and I can tell when you aren't being entirely truthful." Honey brown eyes flickered upward, taking in a gaze that radiated warmth, despite Siobhan's more than occasional emotional distance. "Don't let yourself fall for her if she isn't going to be there to catch you. You love so differently from your sisters, Cosima, that's why Alison mothers you, and Sarah protects you so fiercely. None of us want to see you get hurt, chicken. So I need you to be careful with that girl."_

_Cosima's eyes flicked upward as she tried desperately to blink away the unwelcome tears teasing at her lashes. Despite her best efforts, they fell free when Siobhan crossed the small space between them, pulling the petite brunette closely to her chest and tucking her chin atop the teenager's head. Cosima finally nodded meekly in the embrace, the few tears turning to body wracking sobs as a strong hand moved steadily in circles across her back._

* * *

"I didn't want to fall for you. I wasn't supposed to," she continued, her words barely above a whisper in the humidity filled air after she concluded her summary of the previous week's conversation with Siobhan. The streetlamps reflected in her pupils as earnest eyes glanced upward, finding hazel ones watching her with unwavering attention. "But I did, and I have." A shuddering sigh ripped through her chest, shaking her shoulders as she exhaled, and Delphine immediately snaked an arm around the brunette's upper back, tugging her more closely to her side.

"Well, I have as well, so you don't have to be careful any longer." Siobhan's warning still echoed beneath dark dreadlocks, even as Cosima leaned further into the weight of the girl next to her, burying into the flimsy material of her tank top. Despite the less than conducive angle, the blonde lifted a trembling chin, forcing eye contact before connecting their mouths, a cascade of shocks falling over them in the thickening night air. "You feel it. It's not a lie. It's not possible," she whispered as she pulled back, goose bumps floating over her and dancing against porcelain skin while a wildfire burned within her chest, the warmth leaving a heady feeling infiltrating her veins and bolstering her courage. "Tell me, Cosima," she continued, recalling a speech that had written itself into her cardiac muscles and ensnared itself within the walls of her lungs, stealing her breath. "Tell me that when our fingers touch, or when we accidentally brush against one another, or when our eyes meet, that you don't feel something there. Tell me that there isn't a tingle, or a jolt, or a fire that goes through your chest." Her right hand lifted, quivering as it hovered just inches above the brunette's chest before she laid it flat against Cosima's rapidly pounding heart, snuggly fit beneath her collarbone. "Look at me, and tell me that you don't think I'll catch you."

"How can I possibly believe that, Delphine?" She felt her brain short circuit for a few moments, the neurons misfiring dangerously before her free hand reached out of its own accord and pulled one of Cosima's hands toward her own chest.

"You want to be a scientist. It is facts and figures and observable behaviors, non?" Her voice cracked as it lilted, her typical security in her native tongue facing an onslaught of uncertainty; Delphine pulled the brunette's hand to press against her own rib cage, removing any space from between their bodies, and feeling her heart thrum steadily against shaky fingertips. "You can feel that. It is tangible, observable, and it is real, Cosima. This – us – how I feel for you," she stumbled over the words, for the first time not due to language barriers, "is real. Let me catch you, ma cherie."

If she had looked around, Delphine felt sure that she could see the words of her heart spilling over the sidewalk, washing the streets with letters and punctuation and a definitive glimmer of hope, one that was reflecting in her green eyes, still watching Cosima carefully. She had tried desperately to steel herself for many reactions, but she was unprepared for soft, unhurried lips to press insistently against her own, for a small, warm form to attempt to mold itself against her hipbones, or for the brunette to whisper, almost inaudibly, _catch me_, before reconnecting their mouths a second time. Where her brain fell short, her body recovered quickly, limbs snaking around a slender waist and lungs inhaling as deeply as they could manage, though it seemed Cosima was intent to steal all of the oxygen from her chest.

When they finally pulled apart, the brunette's hand still covering her frantically beating heart, a moment from earlier in the evening wove itself into her consciousness and she breathed out her question as her fingers danced against a flushed cheekbone. "How did you know that was my favorite song?"

Cosima smiled, wide and unhindered by worry, her face lighting up despite the darkness surrounding them. "You listened to it on repeat for like, half of the ride here. I could hear it when you'd fall asleep on my shoulder." Delphine replied silently, a soft grin tugging at the corners of her mouth while her eyes flickered over the form of the woman before her. "Do you want to go back to the hotel?" The blonde nodded, words still managing to escape her, though when Cosima's hand filtered through hers, anchoring her flittering thoughts and sending a slow influx of calm through her body, she realized that her words were unnecessary in the moment. She'd spoken quite enough, enough to have earned bright smiles and soft eyes, insistently tugging fingers and quiet laughter, and perhaps, the heart of the woman tied to all of those things. Normally a realist, Delphine tried desperately to tamper out the hope building in her chest, but once they'd returned to the motel room, finding their three bandmates asleep, the hope was only bolstered by Cosima's actions. She'd quickly removed her clothing, reaching for an oversized t-shirt, not from her own bag, but from the blonde's, and slid into bed, impatiently waiting for Delphine to join her. The hope caught fire, nearly singeing her internal organs when she too, retreated to the warmth of the bed and a strong thigh locked between her own before an arm snuck around her waist and a head of dreadlocks snuggled into her shoulder.

"Is this okay?" Cosima murmured, her exhaustion mirrored in the husky lilt of her voice. The blonde nodded against the top of the other woman's head, pulling her just a little more closely and running her fingers up and down the bassist's spine.

"Il est parfait. Vous êtes parfait." Delphine felt a hand slip beneath her tank top, tracing shapes into her ribs as the lithe body atop her became heavier and heavier, Cosima well on her way to sleep, mumbling out a single word before her breaths evened out completely.

"Perfect."

* * *

Delphine's mind slowly pulled away from the dredges of sleep by the insistent, argumentative whispers filling the motel room, though she refused to open her eyes. Comforted by the weight still slung over half of her body, the brunette's dreads tickling her neck as warm puffs of air danced over her exposed collarbone.

"They look so peaceful though. We still have another half an hour until we have to check out," Alison whispered, pulling an outfit from each of their bags while dutifully packing up the rest of their things. "We should just let them sleep."

Felix huffed over his shoulder, as he stuffed various amenities into the side of his suitcase, going so far as to steal the plastic cups in the bathroom and more than one of the towels. "Then you can tell Cosima we didn't give her time to put on her eyeliner before we left."

Peeking out from under the bed, where she was diligently ensuring they hadn't forgotten a single item, she gasped, her facial expression one of sheer horror. "I will do no such thing."

Delphine buried her face into the brunette's hair, stifling the giggles she felt sure would erupt from her mouth, informing the two others that she'd been eavesdropping. "Cosima," she whispered, her mouth as close as physically possible to the other woman's ear, "it's time to wake up, ma cherie." She felt a vicious head shake against her chin, and chuckled before trying again. "We have to leave soon, and you don't want to lose an eye applying your makeup in the car, do you? It's easier to look through microscopes if you aren't blind, non?" She glanced upward as Cosima groaned, seeing Felix give her a thumbs up as the brunette unhappily detangled their limbs, rubbing at her eyes and whimpering pitifully at the thought of leaving her bed.

"Why did you have to appeal to my logical side?" she groaned, hooking her glasses behind her ears and pushing them up the bridge of her nose with her middle finger before playfully pushing at Delphine's shoulder.

"I laid out outfits for you both," Alison interjected, gesturing towards the two neatly folded piles of clothing atop the dresser. Still frustrated by being woken up, and without a cup of coffee in her hand, Cosima's eyebrows automatically furrowed as a look of general disdain crossed her features. The other woman rolled her eyes and ran a hand over her bangs, though they were still perfectly in place. Felix tossed both piles onto the bed and the brunette flipped through the clothing before nodding, only slightly; she tilted her head upward and caught a glimpse of her pseudo-brother's smirk before he mouthed _I picked them out._ "Now, we've got to check out in a half an hour, and I need to check in with Siobhan, so if you two could get dressed without any funny business, I would appreciate it."

"Right, no _funny business_," Cosima put her hands up in surrender, trying, but failing to hide her grin as she put entirely too much emphasis on the last two words. "Got it, Mom."

Within the hour, the group of five managed to pile back into their vehicle, not without reminders of the time being spouted left and right by Alison's anal penchant for punctuality. Even with her eyeliner carefully applied, the makeup didn't distract from the dark circles under Cosima's eyes from several nights of restless sleep; Delphine tugged her more closely, her legs falling over the drummer's thighs and her head nestled against her chest as she curled up. Even as her eyelids began slipping shut, miniature anvils keeping her from consciousness, she could hear the light thrum of the blonde's music through her headphones.

"The Cardigans?" she chuckled, nuzzling further into Delphine's warmth. "That's a far cry from The Cure, don't you think?"

"Oui, but their version will never compare to yours, mon amour. So, Lovefool it is." Despite Alison's moderately uncomfortable fidgeting, Sarah's exaggerated eye roll, and Felix's mimed gagging in the driver's seat, Cosima giggled, the sound light and carrying through the van's stifled air easily. Delphine pressed a kiss to a lightly tanned forehead, sighing contentedly and unable to wipe the smile from her cheeks when she caught a slight nod from the third woman in the backseat – Sarah's minimal attempts at approval – which was more than enough in that moment.

* * *

**AN: A fair bit shorter than the previous chapter, for which I apologize, but hopefully you enjoyed it. :)  
As for the next chapter, or two (or three, who knows?), I have a few general ideas up my sleeve. Helena will be introduced quite soon, Beth will make another appearance, and I have a plan to bring in Tony as well, at least for a moment, whether or not they stick around is to be seen. With that said, look forward to a little bonding between two unlikely characters, a glimpse of Cosima taking the wheel (quite literally, because I saw a tumblr post about how she would be as a driver, and I can't possibly pass up the opportunity to work a few of those ideas in), and, if you so desire, a little bit of smut. ;) (And as far as that goes, if you want it, do you want implied smut or more graphic smut, so there's that as well.)**

**Let me know what you think, and what you'd like to see! You all are wonderful little angels, and I appreciate all of your kind words! x Aimee**


	6. Chapter 6

"I thought you couldn't get a driver's license if you were blind as a bloody bat, yeah?" Cosima glanced back to glare at Sarah over her shoulder, preparing to retaliate verbally when Alison screeched from the backseat, leaving everyone's ears ringing. Turning back around, she noticed that the van had veered slightly into the oncoming traffic lane, and despite there not being another soul on the road, Alison felt it prudent to inform her in the least productive way.

"You know, screaming bloody murder every time I look away from the windshield is _totally _helping me focus," Cosima grumbled, gripping the steering wheel vigorously and watching as her knuckles blanched.

"I've got Addies if you need," Felix piped up from the backseat, receiving two firm punches to his biceps; one from Alison, who was well aware of his lack of prescription, and the other from Sarah, because he apparently hadn't been sharing. "I'm just trying to help her concentrate on not killing us, yeah? You can thank me later you ungrateful twats."

The stereo suddenly blasted from the front seats of the car, the bass rumbling through the vehicle and shaking the rear view mirror as Cosima tuned out her backseat drivers. Delphine sat silently in the passenger seat, legs pulled near to her chest and a textbook resting precariously on her thighs, wobbling each time the brunette violently jerked the wheel to stay on their side of the road. She alternated between going at least fifteen miles over the speed limit and fifteen under, either to annoy Alison with her "willful ignorance of the traffic signage" or to coast gently, observing the scenery. Delphine offered her a cigarette and she shook her head quickly, spending a few seconds too long looking over at the blonde as she lit her own cigarette, causing a screech to sound a second time from the backseat, the verbalized and very palpable frustration and fear audible over the Grimes album pulsing through the speakers. Cosima deflated in her seat, spending the next thirty minutes driving as a perfect citizen, though she knew she would in no way be allowed to get behind the wheel again, if her sister was sober and had any say in the matter.

"Hey, what about that place?" she finally offered, turning down the music and pointing out a bed and breakfast that was the first sign of civilization they'd seen in what felt like hours. The sun had long since set, and with both Felix and Alison refusing to sleep in the van, their options had become limited. "It's like our last shot, because we're two hours out of Portland and the princesses in the backseat are too good to camp out."

"Just pull in, Cos. If I have to hear one more time about how Felix hates camping - "

"This is bloody torture, yeah? It's like Survivalist training, Sarah." Alison nodded emphatically in agreement with his statement, her fingers fidgeting with her cross as Cosima flipped the blinker, readying herself to turn onto the winding gravel road. "All I need is running water and an attractive bell boy to help me into my room." Delphine snorted, though she didn't look up from the book on her legs, prompting both Sarah and Cosima to chuckle along with her once they'd noticed Alison's clearly affronted face.

"Oh, for fuck's sake, don't pull that face Ali," Sarah groaned through her laughter.

"You aren't nearly as subtle as you think you are," Felix added, thoroughly enjoying the shift in conversation. "We all know what you and Miss Childs have been getting up to."

Alison's expression shifted through several emotional colors within the span of a few seconds – affronted became horrified, which gave way to embarrassed, finally settling into resignation. "My personal life should not be a topic of discussion."

"We're genetic identicals," Cosima threw over her shoulder as the loose gravel rocks flew up and hit the bottom of their van, punctuating her words. "If we aren't allowed to be intimately acquainted with your journey into the Island of Sappho, who is? The Island of Sappho being Beth's vagina, obvs." As she slowed to a stop, silently noting that the front door to the bed and breakfast had opened, revealing a woman with a large halo of blonde hair, she looked into the backseat, seeing Alison's face buried in her hands, her body quivering. "Look, Alison, we weren't raised together, so as much as we throw the word around, we're not siblings _like that_. If you like her - "

"Would that be incest or like, dual masturbation, or what?"

"Not helping, Fee. You're not helping at bloody all, yeah?" Sarah griped, hearing a tearing gasp of air rip through Alison's lungs, and awkwardly patting her back.

"Well, she's admittedly more attractive than Donnie," he tried backpedaling.

"Don't apologize for your heart, all right?" Cosima added, flashing a wide smile at her sister when she saw hazel eyes, lashes spiderwebbed from tears, lift up from the girl's lap. "I won't apologize for mine, and you totally shouldn't either." She unbuckled her seat belt, hopping out of the car and immediately stretching her limbs while she waited for her cohorts to follow suit. Within a few minutes, Alison had pulled herself together, and they were moving toward the front door, where the blonde still stood, waiting patiently. "Oh, holy watershed," the dreadlocked brunette whispered out as they got closer to the entrance.

Alison and Sarah's eyes flickered upward, mumbling out "Jesus Murphy," and "holy shite," respectively, whereas Delphine murmured out a slew of French expletives.

"Hello. How was your day?" the woman spoke, slowly and with practiced intention, her accent still obvious.

"This never gets any less weird." Felix's mumbling earned an elbow into his ribs and a withering glare from his foster sister, leaving him silently contemplating muteness for the rest of their tour.

"Um, good?" Cosima offered, ignoring her vocalist's commentary, her eyes still scanning the new figure's body and cataloging the differences, her hair being the most noteworthy. "We've been driving for a while though, and we need a place to crash."

"Crash?" the woman mimicked, tilting her head to the side and adopting a childlike expression of confusion. Cosima snaked her head left and right, releasing the tension from her shoulders, though it remained stealthily meandering through the air hanging around them.

"We'd like to rent several rooms, if possible. We are in need of a place to stay for the evening." Naturally, Alison's inherent politeness would sooth the situation, a social balm for the wide eyed gazes and vocal incapabilities of her siblings.

The blonde faltered for a moment, still watching the group carefully, her eyes flickering over each of their faces, though she never lingered on Felix or Delphine. "We have room," she finally spoke, her voice quiet, as though their rejection might shatter her fragile, initial confidence, "but only two beds." Cosima groaned quietly, her forehead falling against the blonde's shoulder as she dropped her messenger bag to the ground. Delphine tried to keep her chuckles silent as the smaller woman shook her head back and forth against her skin, clearly defeated. "There is also loft," she continued, her voice quivering with what sounded like hope, a twisted necessity of being needed clear in her words. "Loft has only one bed, and is in attic. There are many stairs, but is nice." She focused her attention on Sarah, with the group following suit, and in a drawling, slightly annoyed tone, she acquiesced, her exhaustion playing a large part into her agreement.

"Thank Darwin," Cosima whispered, burying her face further into Delphine's side before lifting her bag off of the ground and following the mysterious blonde into the bed and breakfast, choosing, as it seemed everyone else had, to ignore her identical features for the time being, at the very least.

Alison, Felix, and Sarah were quickly settled on the second floor, and the two remaining band members followed the third woman up a narrow staircase, each step creaking beneath their combined weight. "I am Helena," she offered, her words seemingly practiced as she turned back toward the door, leaving them to ready themselves for bed. Her head dipped slightly when she gripped the doorknob, her features once again transporting Cosima back in time to when she was younger, perhaps four or five, and her parents reprimanded her for speaking to strangers about the bugs she'd found and consequently dismantled in their backyard. "I like your hairs." Both women consciously ran a hand over their head, one meeting tied back dreadlocks, the other slipping easily through beachy waves.

"Thank you," Cosima grinned. "I like your hairs too." She wasn't sure if the grammatical error was psychological or a linguistic barrier, but hoped her response comforted the woman in some way, and was pleased to find a tentative smile replace the permanent look of vulnerability Helena wore. "Good night."

"Do not let the bed bugs bite you," she replied easily, shutting the door behind her.

* * *

Alison laid stock still in bed, staring directly upward at the popcorned texture of the ceiling above them, while she listened to Felix's feet move against the worn sheets of the second bed in the room. Sarah was turned away from her, but she could detect, after years of sleepovers, that the third brunette was still awake as well. She huffed, her bangs fluttering off of her forehead, but receiving no reaction, repeated the action a second time, more loudly.

"What Alison?" Sarah grumbled, her voice partially muffled from where her cheek was pressed against the pillowcase.

"Are we going to talk about this?" She felt her question was warranted, and needed no further explanation, but she realized as soon as her sister opened her mouth that she should have been more specific, to avoid Sarah's scathing sarcasm.

"You and Childs, you mean? I think Cos might be a bit better to talk to about this kind'a stuff, yeah?" Alison heard the snicker, despite the other woman's attempts to muffle her chuckles by dipping her face further into the feathers of the pillow.

"You know what I mean," she griped, crossing an arm across her chest as her free hand landed on her cheek, stroking gently as her mother had when she was younger and thinking far too much about something. "I thought we could address -"

"The blonde, Ukrainian elephant in the room?" Felix finished for her, abandoning his attempts at getting comfortable beneath the covers and sitting up abruptly to face his nearly adopted sister. "Well, she's obviously another one'a you, ain't she?"

"You would think that four of us would be enough, yeah? Are we just goin' t'keep finding more _genetic identicals _while we tour, or what?"

"It is a distinct possibility, Sarah. We haven't any idea how many of us there are."

* * *

"Is she another clone?" Delphine's voice was hesitant as she pulled her t-shirt over her head, her back to Cosima, despite the states of undress the brunette had already seen her in. Self-preservation had her itching for a modicum of modesty, despite the fact that she knew the other woman was sprawled across the mattress in nothing more than a tank top and a pair of brightly colored boy-shorts.

"Seems like it," Cosima replied offhandedly, the blonde's familiar features fluttering through her mind's eye while she struggled to keep her _own _eyes off of the rippling muscles of Delphine's shoulders. "There's no way we can know how many of us were made when we were," she paused, her hands waving through the air above her, "_created_, you know?"

The tension seemed to filter in through the attic fans, dancing in the moonbeam's rays that fell from the skylight which provided much of the illumination within the space. Delphine spun around, forgoing shorts and crawling across the stiff mattress until she was inches away from the brunette. She settled onto her calves, perched on her haunches with her hand hovering just centimeters from Cosima's cheek for several seconds before she brought her fingers down, allowing them to skate across the surface of lightly freckled cheeks. "Il y a juste une Cosima," she managed, the lump in her throat building, emotions snowballing into a painful knot that prevented her words from flowing as freely as she would have liked. "There is just one of you, ma cherie."

They were words the brunette hadn't heard in longer than she would be willing to admit. It wasn't particularly hard for the scientific portion of her to accept that she was a clone – for that quantum of her being found the idea of genetic identicals fascinating, and latched onto the knowledge that she could build a thesis around the empirical evidence she'd been gathering for years without her sister's knowledge. The other part, the emotional, overly vulnerable, mildly insecure molecules that threw logicality and reason to the side, found herself lost in a _we _that she couldn't escape from. It was a _we _that was inherently a part of her, one she could not abandon or forget, one that plagued her thoughts as soon as she met her own gaze in the mirror. In the years since she had met her "sisters," her singular identity had fallen to the wayside, without her consent, but without her protest all the same; to be outwardly recognized as an individual, as one, not a few, slowly filled a gaping chasm in her chest that she hadn't know existed, and had her tilting upwards to reach for the nape of Delphine's neck.

Cosima pressed her lips carefully, consideringly, against the mouth just inches from her own, gauging the reaction as the scientific method finagled itself in and around her neurons. She was methodical in her observations, noting the slight exhale of air that broke from within Delphine's chest, the immediate aperture of her lips, and the shiver that ripped down a delicate spine as she pushed upward a bit more confidently.

"Is this okay?" It was the second time in two days that the three words had tripped over her tongue and teeth, but the reassurance was something that soothed the ache within her bones and wrapped warm platitudes around her quivering tendons.

"Il est mon – tu es ma premiere," she whispered in response, her cheeks flushing in the dim light of the attic. "Be gentle, s'il te plait." Delphine's voice lilted at the end of her sentence, with worry that Cosima would be unsure of her next actions, despite perhaps not fully understanding the original confession. It was much easier for the blonde to admit she'd never been with a woman in her native tongue; therein still lay an air of mystery, one that could shield her from possible rejection.

"Your first time shouldn't be anything but."

She felt calloused fingers cautiously tip toe up the sides of her torso, following the dips in her waist and tracing the peaks and valleys of each individual rib without moving much farther upward. Cosima's confident hands splayed across her abdomen as she moved to straddled creamy thighs, her eyes never wavering from the almost identical hazel gaze staring up at her once the blonde was lying flat against the mattress. Her right hand lifted from its place, settled against contracting muscles, following the dips and curves of Delphine's collarbone, moving to the top of her shoulder blade and idly following the lines of black ink that decorated a large portion of the other woman's skin, her touch reverent in a way; her fingers, even now it seemed, could not stay still for long, moving again to worship each features of the blonde's face, gently running over high cheekbones, lingering over freckles, and brushing the pad of her thumb over a plump bottom lip.

"You're incredibly beautiful. You know that, right?" The words, dripping as much in honesty as Cosima's motions had been, sent a flush across the apples of Delphine's cheeks, further down her neck, until it settled across her sternum, stopping just above her breasts. "You should hear that more often," she continued. "I'll tell you every day if I have to, to make you believe it."

Fluttering her eyelids open to gaze the warm gaze washing over her before the brunette's head dipped, pressing a solitary kiss where her shoulder and neck met, her response was barely audible and sounded as though it was pulled directly from the very back of her throat. "I'm starting to believe it."

Any further words caught behind her teeth as Cosima's arms crossed at her waist, lifting her thin tank top over her head and dropping it onto the floor rather unceremoniously. She lifted one leg, shifting until she was no longer straddling the nervously vibrating blonde beneath her, settling onto her side and brushing the pads of her fingers over Delphine's collarbone again. With very little physical protest, she slipped a thigh between the two mirroring hers against the mattress and pressed forward, her palm flattening against the blonde's sternum as she connected their mouths a second time. As she pulled away slowly, her fingertips tapping out a bass rhythm against the other woman's skin, she watched as darkened hazel eyes scanned over her body, the nerves once radiating from her pupils stilling, subsiding, and finally, disappearing.

Delphine was a scientist, just as much as Cosima was. She thrived on the tangible, on knowledge, on procedure, and the brunette knew, or knew as well as she could, that the idea of being subpar in even the most basic of the biological sciences was terrifying, despite the actions being innate, being primal. She shifted just as bit more, aligning her body as closely to Delphine's as she could manage with their difference in height, leveling the playing field and ensuring that she wasn't asserting unintentional dominance. Despite the desire dancing in green and golden pupils, the empirically evident lust charging through her atoms, Cosima willed her hands to still, allowing the blonde the next move. Delphine's fingers soon found the dandelion on her forearm, her uncalloused tips whispering over the rebellious seeds, the movement akin to a light wind, as the thumb on her other hand traced the nautilus shell's pattern with awe. As they lay there, the silence washing over them both, encapsulated in a bubble of their own creation, each set of hazel eyes dedicated freckles and ink and veins to memory until palms met, fingers intertwined, and lips met more hungrily than they had previously.

Cosima's hands, now granted movement without worry, trailed upward, cupping Delphine's cheeks as her thigh slowly migrated further upward, finally pressing against a heat she hadn't been expecting. She, unlike her sisters, was familiar with intimacy, even if not on this level, and with her heart pounding mercilessly behind her rib cage, the tempo borderlining on a staccato, she felt a rush of confidence flood her when her eyes met a similar pair – wide, encouraging, imploring even.

Her hand snaked between their bodies, blazing a trail she felt had been encoded somewhere within her, perhaps in a synthetic section of her DNA. As her fingers met the warmth she'd felt momentarily against her leg muscles, she felt sure of it – she was designed, created, and born to love the woman in her arms, who was currently quivering with anticipation. Her wrist moved of its own accord, snaking so that the tips of her fingers drew intentional patterns against Delphine, each swirl provoking a breathy moan and each dip bringing forth a shuddering gasp. Her attention had been stolen by the way her abdominal muscles contracted originally, but shifting her gaze, the vulnerability building beneath long lashes had her free hand brushing against the blonde's cheek and her lips whispering truthful platitudes against an open mouth.

"You are _so _incredibly beautiful," she managed to murmur out before brushing her tongue against pink lips and feeling her mouth seized as Delphine surged forward, her entire body pressing against the smaller one just inches away. The sudden movement had once again stilled Cosima's hand, though the appendage seemed to be protesting readily; each time their lips met, angles shifting, tongues slowly tracing upper or bottom lips, a surge ripped through each woman, until the brunette's will power was failing her, steadily. She dipped her finger just that much further down, pulling her head away from the heady, intoxicating pull of Delphine's lips and meeting a furrowed brow and eyes flashing with confusion. "May I -" she trailed off, her hand speaking the rest of her silent sentence.

"Oh mon dieu, please."

With all the confirmation she needed, her lips slid across a flushed creek and she nestled them into the crook of the blonde's neck while gently pressing upward and into a slick heat that set alight the fire that had been nothing more than kindling in her limbs. She smirked as they shifted, Delphine's legs falling open and allowing Cosima to settle between them, her hand working steadily between creamy thighs and her ears committing to memory every rattled breath, each undeniably elaborate string of Parisian profanity, and most, especially, the way her name sounded falling out of a gaping mouth. She took mental notes of the way Delphine's eyebrows pulled together when she curled her fingers, or the way her back arched when Cosima grazed her canine teeth beneath her ear, or the way short nails gripped at her shoulders when she found her fingers, still valiantly moving within the writhing woman beneath her, clamped down on, as if to hold them in that place for eternity.

Once they were released, the burn dancing over her skin had yet to be extinguished and she tugged gently at the band of Delphine's underwear, her question clear without vocalization. Receiving a light-headed nod, she pulled them down, reveling in the heady scent that assaulted her already overactive senses. Pressing a gentle kiss to a still quivering ankle, and another to a trembling knee, she felt the muscles beneath her lips tense and she moved upward, not allowing any of their skin to brush before she reached the blonde's mouth, lingering there and spelling out reassurances with her tongue, as it swirled around its partner and wrote promises on the roof of Delphine's mouth.

"Only when you're totally ready," she finally spoke, intuiting that the relieved sigh was confirmation of her suspicions. "We have all the time in the world." Cosima nuzzled into the crook of the other woman's neck, only hooking their ankles together and sealing her words with a final kiss just above the blonde's rapidly beating heart.

* * *

**AN: I want to apologize a thousand times over for the length between updates. Not long after I posted chapter five, my mother was admitted to the hospital for a triple bypass surgery, and once she was finally released, I moved back in with my parents to help my dad take care of her. I've been a great big ball of stress for the past few weeks, and writing was next to impossible.**

**So, I gave you guys an extra long chapter with a bit of smut as my way of an appropriate apology, which I hope you'll accept. As always, review if you want to, because I love to hear what you all are thinking, and if you have any requests (aside from the introduction of Tony, because he's coming, I promise!), let me know! xx Aimee**

**Also, if you'd like to follow my OB tumblr, I'm cosima-cormier. :) In events like this, I try and let you know what exactly is going on in my life that is keeping me away from updating!**


	7. Chapter 7

Cosima's touch was light, her fingertips dancing across freckled skin as gently as the early morning light that washed over them both; her eyes mimicked her hands, moving constantly, committing every minute atom of the moment to memory. She noted the differences in the colors of the curled strands sheathing a cotton pillow case, some almost blindingly golden, others nearing the mahogany of the furniture in their temporary room; she tucked away the crescent shaped shadows Delphine's eyelashes splayed across the tops of her cheekbones; she held tight to the warmth of the lithe body tucked against her chest and the solid, comforting form of five fingers wrapped around her waist, even in slumber. She didn't have the heart to rouse the blonde nestled cozily beneath the covers, despite knowing it wouldn't be long before at least one of their bandmates came barreling through the door, requesting that they leave early to make it to Portland with enough time to settle in before their gig that evening.

"Delphine," she finally whispered, her fingers still diligently tracing up and down the other woman's vertebrae, "we need to get up." The blonde shook her head slightly, burying further into the chest she'd used as a pillow for the majority of the night before pulling the sheets further up underneath her chin. Chuckling, Cosima tilted her head downward, ignoring the slightly awkward angle, and pressed a placating kiss atop sun-kissed curls. "Everyone else will be awake soon, and Felix and Sarah aren't good at the whole knocking before entering a room thing," she continued, hoping to appeal to Delphine's still present modesty.

"I want to pretend it is just you and me, ma cherie, for just a few minutes more." The words were whispered in the lowest of tones, a cross between an embarrassed confession and tempting manipulator. Regardless of the intention, Cosima's heart swelled and a small smile etched itself into her cheeks – one of contentment, of agreement, of illogical love. She wrapped her arms more tightly around the slender frame shrouding her in warmth, soaking in the last moments of peace she'd have for the next few hours, if not days, jolting slightly when three sharp knocks interrupted their silence.

"Come in, Ali," she called out, her tone revealing her frustration with the disruption, despite being secretly pleased that Alison was the one sent to them, as she at least had the good sense to announce herself before entering.

"Is everyone decent?" Her voice, much higher pitched than that of her sisters, rose another octave at her question, a tell-tale sign that she was uncomfortable with being sent to rouse the pair. Hearing an affirmative, her ponytail swung through the air as she peered around the door, eyes falling on her sister and their bandmate, intimately intertwined, though covered. "We'd like to get on the road within the hour, but there is breakfast downstairs, if you two would like something." Cosima nodded, acknowledging the information without pulling away from Delphine's form, still comfortably settled against her chest. The dreadlocked brunette was surprised when Alison sent her a gentle smile, nodding shyly before closing the door behind her.

The blonde snuggled just that much closer, tilting her head up to press a kiss against Cosima's throat before begrudgingly pulling back the sheets and maneuvering her body into a sitting position, happily accepting the pops and cracks her neck emitted. Pulling a loose fitting blouse over her head, she absentmindedly handed the other woman her own bag, focusing her attention on the opposite wall as she shimmied into a pair of high-waisted shorts and slipped sandals onto her feet.

"Delphine, you okay?" The shaking timber of Cosima's voice effectively pulled Delphine's gaze toward her, any self-control she'd mustered wavering quickly.

She flashed a small smile, her hazel eyes crinkled at the corners, and nodded, keeping her gaze locked on wavering orbs a similar shade to her own. "I just know if I watch you, we won't ever make it to breakfast," she admitted, her cheeks flushing crimson as memories of the night before flashed through her mind's eye, snuck around the atria of her heart, and settled between her thighs, her nerve endings dancing dangerously and pleading with her to maintain contact with the brunette now grinning in her direction. It was a new feeling, the rise within her, one she wasn't sure she'd ever become accustomed to, but all the same, one that she was beginning to welcome with open arms each time her chest constricted and her pulse spiked.

Cosima chuckled lightly as she slipped her arms through an oversized cardigan and returned her rings to their respective fingers, watching the subtle shifts in Delphine's body language. She crawled across the bed on her hands and knees, sitting back on her calves when she was just inches away from the other woman, leaning forward to press a searing kiss against lips that molded to hers without second thought.

"Cosima?" Pulling back once the questioning whisper hit her ears, the brunette nodded earnestly, encouraging Delphine to continue by entangling their fingers and squeezing gently, feeling the nerves radiating through her appendages. "Are you –" the drummer stopped, shaking her head self-deprecatingly. "What are we –" Despite the broken fragments the sentences were, it was easy enough to interpret the meaning as Delphine's voice shook and her hands fared no better.

"We're whatever you'd like us to be." For someone who thrived on empirical fact and preferred exacted results, Cosima allowed the other half of herself win out in the emotional battle royale she was experiencing. For all the statistics in the world, just as much of who she was centered around fluidity. It was in her first psychology class that she encountered the idea of nature versus nurture, and had since done more research than she would have liked to admit on the notion, comparing the theories to the observational data she'd gathered watching Beth, Alison, and Sarah. While they all shared more than a fair few common characteristics that could surely be chalked up to genetics – undeniable protective instincts, a stubborn streak rivalled only by one another, and a penchant for recklessness in some form or fashion – she knew she was a far cry from Sarah's guardedness, Beth's overly confident front, and Alison's impersonation of perfection personified. Perhaps it was how she was raised, or perhaps it lay in the arms of the astrology she couldn't believe in, or perhaps it was simply that she was programmed in some way to be the flowing water to her sisters' fires, but regardless of how or why, Cosima had never been more grateful than she was in this moment to be as comfortable with her fluidity as she was.

"I'd like to think that you were mine," Delphine finally whispered, clearly as caught up in her own head as the woman just inches away from her was. "I'd like to think that you are _only _mine."

"Then I'm yours." It was a simple enough statement, one that she punctuated with a tender kiss, her thumb brushing across her girlfriend's cheekbone, hoping she could instill promises through the brush of skin on skin. "I'm only yours." The nearly blinding smile she received in response was more than Cosima could have hoped for, and she sent a quick pulse of pressure through their palms before unfolding her legs from beneath her body and standing, pulling her girlfriend with her. "But, I'm also completely starving, so can we please go eat?"

* * *

**AN: Please don't hate me, given that this is quite possibly the shortest chapter I have ever posted on any of my stories. I want to apologize for the completely unforgivable gap in between updates, and say that I'm going to try and start posting more regularly. I would have added quite a bit more to this, but I didn't want you to have to wait any longer than you already have, nor did I want you to think I've abandoned this story!**

**Also, if you're interested, I'll be posting a teacher!Cophine AU in the next week or so I'd expect (part of the first chapter is already written). So, if you set up an author alert, you'll know when that is posted, or you can check up on me (and annoy me about updating things) on my tumblr: cosima-phdhaus. :)**

**So, as always, I hope you enjoyed, despite the brevity! x Aimee**


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